LAND OF THE GIANTS-THE FLIGHT PLAN
THE FLIGHT PLAN PRODUCTION TEN AIRED-11-10-1968--SIXTH WRITER-PETER PACKER DIR-HARRY HARRIS NEW MUSIC-PAUL SAWTELL TEASER Chipper alerts Barry, Betty, and Fitzhugh as two giants pass, searching for someone. Fitzhugh staying back, Betty and Barry to help a human sized man who is exhausted. The giants return and think they hear the man...who is groaning. ACT ONE Betty gets the man back to the spaceship camp with help from Fitzhugh. From the cockpit window, the other three men of Spindrift see them arrive. They bring him to the lean to tent set up. The man seems to have a memory loss, even though he is wearing a pilot's uniform and jacket. They nickname him Joe, which he think is his name. Taking her aside, Steve scolds a protesting Betty. She shouldn't have brought him to the ship. Steve tells her that no stranger should know the location of Spindrift and camp (although he brought Kagan to it in THE WEIRD WORLD--Kagan may not come under "stranger"). Joe overhears this and leaves, despite protests from Dan and Betty. The same two giants come close to the spaceship; capture Steve and then Joe at the vent of their lab. Dan and Mark follow him to a busy street, crowded with giants. The two prisoners are told they will not escape (used in a promo for TV-55 on Long Island in New York in the mid to late 80s). Dan and Mark reach the step bottom but one of the giants comes out, sits down and begins smoking a pipe. His boots are on either side of the two men. Joe gives Steve a razor sharp drill blade he had hidden and they cut the mesh off the cage, string it together, and climb down. Dan and Mark leave when the giant raises a foot. They plan to return at night. Steve and Joe get separated; Joe getting recaptured at the vent. Inside again, the giants tell Joe--whose real name is Logar--that their plan is going well. He is working with the giants, taking pills to be Earth size. He tells them he has convinced the Earth travelers that he is a fugitive himself and the giants should now call him Joe. ACT TWO Steve meets Betty, Dan, and Mark in the forest. When they return to camp, they see Joe in the cockpit, sitting at the pilot seat, looking through a manual. Dan tells Joe he thinks they can get the ship off the ground and flying again despite what Mark thinks. Betty suggests to Dan that he teach Joe how to fly. Dan begins teaching Joe how to fly. At night: Steve, Barry, and Fitzhugh come running back to camp. Steve stops Mark from using the drill bit Joe had--he was sawing and making a racket. Mark apologizes, "I wasn't thinking." Steve says, "Maybe I wasn't either." The drill bit made a loud noise when Steve and Joe used it to cut out of the cage--yet, the giants didn't hear. Betty tracks Steve into the woods and he allows her to come and find Joe. Joe is on a tree stump high above ground, talking to the two giants (one of whom is named Moloch). He needs to know where some ion propellant is kept. Joe plans to fly to Earth and other planets, learn all their secrets, return to their own Giant planet, and share the riches of the galaxy with the two giants. Logar is the one in charge. Steve and Betty don't see that but do see the giants lumber away---while Joe sneaks up behind the two of them and says, "Hi." In the passenger compartment, later, Dan tells Joe to straighten up and gives him his wings. The others clap and despite Val's demand for a speech, Joe runs outside. His shirt seems to be too small for him. He takes a pill--watched by Steve, who followed him out. Joe fakes that he remembered his vitamin pills. When Steve starts asking suspicious questions again, Joe yells at him, telling Steve he just wants Joe out of camp. Betty comes out and follows Joe, unseen by the others. She stumbles upon him talking to the two giants via a walkie talkie. Joe spots her and slowly moves at her, "You know it isn't safe to be walking around at night. It's different for a man when he has business to take care of...business that's much too important to let anyone get in the way!" He grabs her, covering her mouth and takes her away. ACT THREE In the house, on the table, Joe pushes Betty into a cage and she slaps him and calls him, "Big Joe and his little helpers." Then with horror, Betty realizes he is a giant, "You...you're one of them." Joe quips, "You didn't know how right you were when you called me Big Joe, did you?" Val and Fitzhugh report back to Steve at camp--Betty is nowhere to be found on their regular trails. Joe returns again and tells them he knows where the propellant is. The giants make sure the little people can't get near the house to look for Betty: Joe called them to tell them not to allow the group near since it would waste a lot of time. The ion is kept in a security complex guarded by guards who have instructions to shoot to kill intruders. It is a death penalty to be found near the ion--it is the only amount the giants have. The men gets some ion out of the metal box it is in but Joe is caught by one of the guards, who won't listen to his incredible story or a scientific experiment that made him an Earthling's size. He puts Joe in the metal box. Outside already, Steve overhears Joe's cries for help which carry out through the vent. He has to decide if he should go back in. ACT FOUR The guard calls for backup. Steve, Dan, and Mark go back to the complex, leaving Fitzhugh holding the explosive propellant, "And don't drop it." Val tells Fitzhugh he was awfully fast to remain back here. The other three men rescue Joe using the telephone wires to distract the cold hearted guard, who taunted Joe with a promise of his being as good as dead anyway. Mark makes the phone ring as the other two get him out, turning the top opening. The others regroup, Joe shaking (as Val notices). A wide spread DRAGNET is out for them all. They are to split up into groups of two. Joe, followed by Fitzhugh, returns to the house and frees Betty. Betty wonders what kind of trick he is up to, "Said the spider to the fly." He wants to free her since for once, he knew what it felt like to be trapped and helpless...like her...and her friends." Joe is impressed they risked their lives---stuck their necks out--to save him. Fitzhugh catches up to the others, tells them that bravely but foolhardy, Joe went to look for Betty. They return to the house where everyone is netted by one of the giants. Steve manages to get clear of the net. The giant brings all of them inside. Moloch says to Joe, "To be grateful to little people is to be as little as they are." He tries to convince Joe to come to his senses. Joe asks Betty to believe him that he wants to let them all go. Betty wants to believe him but the other giant drops the net of Val, Mark, Dan, Fitzhugh, Chipper, and Barry next to Betty and Joe on the floor. Steve comes in through the vent, threatening to use the propellant to blow up the giants...and everyone if they don't free his friends. Joe grabs it away from Steve. Moloch says, "Nice work, Joe." The two giants seem to reach down for them all. TAG Joe warns the giants to keep back and allows Betty and Steve to free their friends. Joe knew Steve would have never thrown the bomb. Everyone but Joe scrambles out the vent. They run to the garbage can they hid at before Steve orders, "Let's get back to the ship." Why? Wouldn't that be the first place Joe would take the giants if he told? Maybe to move everything from the ship to another place or maybe Steve trusted Joe to keep quiet now that Joe let them free. Anyhow, moot point: the propellant goes off, exploding the house, killing the giants and seemingly Joe, too. In the rubble of fire and wood, the giants are dead...and a third giant...Joe...Logar...lies in the wreckage, dead and naked. Steve and the others quietly stand around him. Steve finds the walkie talkie Joe used and tosses it aside. Pan up and away from our hopeless group.